Want Instant Enlightenment ? – Visit Bodh Gaya

“Yes I know it is not possible for us to go this time but we have to Monica.” Said I with

a lot of stubbornness. I still have not been able to understand when is the time we as a husband and wife would ever agree on the same matter. She wanted to go to Bodh Gaya and I to Kashi.

“No I want to feel enlightenment” said my wife with a lot of determination. “Enlightenment! As if it is something available in the shop. We aren’t Gautama Buddha.” Anyway tell me one instance when men could win over women? So very soon we were on our way to Delhi airport and after some hours we were at the Bodh Gaya airport.

I know that the NH38 connects Gaya with Bodh Gaya. I had driven down here before. There are buses from Bodh Gaya to Varanasi too. I had come here before but without Monica.

This religious place and the lovely pilgrim spot was indeed a great place to visit and I suddenly felt that maybe I would really get enlightened. The Mahabodhi temple in the district of Gaya is in the state of Bihar in India. And the state of Bihar certainly is enlightened because of this.

All of us know that Gautama Buddha the great got enlightened at this place in India.

“Did you know that this place was not called bodh Gaya till the 18th century? Initially it was known as Uruvela and then as Mahabodhi and then as Vajrasana. The main monastery of Bodh Gaya was known as the Bodhimanda vihara.”

“ Yes, I have read about it, “ I said and I knew that the present day Mahabodhi temple is the Bodhimanda Vihara of earlier times.

My friend had adopted the Buddhist religion and I have seen that he regards Bodh Gaya as one of the main Buddhist pilgrim sites apart from the Kushinagar, Sarnath and Lumbini sites. Bodh Gaya in fact, I had read is today a UNESCO Heritage site.

As we passed through Gaya I was sad to see the dust and the dirt in the city. The noise was disturbing the peace and tranquility of the place. Today there are lots of plans being made to make it a more sustainable city with a good future. As I told this to Monica, she only said that making it sustainable meant that the entire neighborhood had to be relocated and disturbed. T

his was sad and difficult.

Then we reached the famous Bodhi tree. This was the tree under which it was believed that Gautama Buddha got enlightenment. Existing since the 7th century this was actually built  by the great Indian Emperor Ashoka somewhere around the 3rd BC.

This bodhi tree with the scientific name Ficus religiosa was the place where Gautama Buddha rested after wandering around for days together. After he became an ascetic leaving his house, it was only here that he meditated for three days and three nights and then suddenly conquered all bonds and got enlightened. He got all the answers that he was seeking. Then after this Gautama Buddha spent around 7 weeks in 7 different places and then he reached Sarnath where he started preaching Buddhism.

Slowly and gradually the disciples began to visit this religious place in the Indian month of VAishak in the full moon day. It is believed that this was the day the Buddha got enlightenment. So it is popularly celebrated as the Buddha Purnima.

The tree was then later renamed as the Bodhi tree.

“Did you know that there were these Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang being one of them who documented the Buddha’s teaching in the 7th century?”asked Monica.

“Yes, “ I said “ I have read about that and then the Turks came and invaded this place in the 13th century.

We saw the Mahabodhi temple and the Vajrasana or the diamond throne.

“Actually 250 years after Buddha got enlightenment, Emperor Ashoka happened to visit Bodh Gaya. Then he found this present day temple. There was a spire which was elongated and there was a small stupa and chhatravali on the platform. There were steps leading to the inner part of the temple and the platform. There were mouldings and carvings on the spire and there were images of Buddha carved in then grooves. But this temple got buried under soil over time.

Then Sir Alexander Cunnigham restored it in the 19th century and the temple was brought back to its present glory.

WE had a great visit to the temple and I must say that I shouldn’t have doubted my wife’s insistence when she said it is a unique experience. It sure is a great enlightening experience.